Post-mortem examinations were carried out on Thursday after the men died in the incident on Wednesday.

The men died when the helicopter Mr Barnes was flying clipped a high rise crane attached to The Tower at St George Wharf in Vauxhall, central London at about 8am.

Witnesses described hearing a loud bang and a flash of light as the twin-engine aircraft crashed near Wandsworth Road. Video footage and photos flooded on to social media sites showing chaotic scenes, burning wreckage and vehicles charred by flames.

Twelve people were also injured in the smash, but police said casualty figures could have been much higher.

On Thursday Mr Barnes' brother Chris said it would have been his sibling's instinct to try to minimise the number of people who were hurt. Mr Barnes, 55, from Nottingham, said: "It's a matter of instinct, it's what pilots do. He was very good at what he did."

The pilot, from Berkshire, had two children, 12-year-old Alexandra and eight-year-old Freddie, with his partner Rebecca Dixon.

Mr Wood, from Sutton, was killed as he walked to his job as a manager at a pest control firm. His sister Amanda Wood, 31, said he was in the area at the time because he was always early for work.

She described him as a "big guy with a big heart" who doted on his godson, his brother Darren's child. He was killed nearly a year to the day that his father Brian died from leukaemia on January 21.